The Minister of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana has announced that all textbooks and workbooks for the 2016/2017 academic year are available with prices the same as last year. Minister Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana assured parents of this during a press conference in Yaounde on the 10th August 2016.

Before the press conference, the Trade Minister had already signed a release on the 9^th of August 2016, spelling out the maximum prices for all school textbooks. Booksellers, distributors and owners of bookshops took part in the press conference in Yaounde.

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Jean Ernest Ngalle Bibehe, Cameroon’s Minister of Secondary Education (MINESEC), has summoned 369 teachers to Yaounde. Cameroon Concord News gathered that the 369 have been called by the MINESEC boss to justify the authenticity of their deeds of engagement with the Cameroon government.

The MINESEC move is aim at giving marginalized institutions genuine teachers.  New teachers assigned in the hinterland, often desert their duty stations and make use of various subterfuges, ending up in major cities and specifically in Douala, Yaoundé, Bafoussam, or other regional capitals that offer the minimum of modernity.

In the new policy, Minister Jean Ernest Ngalle Bibehe wants to change things. He intends to have sufficient quantity and quality in all public secondary schools including a dedicated staff. After the clean-up campaign, those teachers found guilty of having used false deeds of engagement will be ruthlessly crushed.

By Rita Akana (Cameroon Concord News Group)

More than 30 fake universities have been closed in the United Kingdom over the past year amid growing concerns about students being sold invalid degrees. According to a study published on Tuesday, a watchdog organization that monitors fake university degrees in the UK, known as Hedd (Higher Education Degree Datacheck), identified a total of 62 bogus institutions in 2015, with 32 of them being shut down by law enforcement and trading standards agencies, the Guardian reported.

Of the 32 fake institutions closed, 25 were based overseas, said Jayne Rowley, the director of Hedd. “All the ones that were shut down were completely bogus,” she said,describing the universities as “completely fake sites that talk of campuses of students when there’s literally nothing there at all.”

Since 2011, 220 bogus UK universities have been identified and 80 percent of them are no longer active, Rowley noted. Degree fraud has turned into a serious problem in the UK over the past years with recent evidence showing an increase in the number of universities offering fake degree certificates.

“With the onset of the internet and distance learning, degree fraud is a borderless crime and we must collaborate with agencies around the world to deal with it,” Rowley said. “An awful lot of fraud goes undetected, but we also need to get people thinking more about prevention,” she concluded.

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The results of the 2016 session of examinations organized by the General Certificate of Education, GCE board have recorded an overall improvement compared to 2015. Statistics from the General Certificate of Education Board show that there has been a 6% improvement in the 2016 GCE Session of the examination.

However, there was a decline in the performance at the GCE Technical Advanced Level from 45 percent in 2015, to 40 percent this year. The Registrar of the GCE Board Humphrey Monono Ekema revealed over 900 cases of examination malpractices. The registrar also cited cases of candidates who have been banned for fighting with invigilators.

Humphrey Monono said there were cases were about 13 candidates in a single examination centre had the same errors. The Registrar thanked the invigilators and the teaching community and congratulated the successful candidates.

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The preparedness of the University of Bamenda, UBa, to meet future development challenges has been restated with the launch of UBa Consult to guarantee viability, financial autonomy and sustainable development. North West Governor, Adolphe Lele Lafrique, launched the venture on July, 12, 2016, stressing that the platform aligns with the vision of the government and other stakeholders to see the university emerge into a leading national institution.

The Governor lauded management for the initiative, which is a partnership with the renowned Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune, India. It was a moment for the Governor to salute the new momentum and dynamism brought to the University of Bamenda by the new leadership. The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Nkuo Theresia Akenji, said UBa Consult was not only an Information Technology Consortium, but a multi-dimensional and multi-purpose business venture that encourages individuals, groups, institutions and viable communities.

She added that the initiative was inspired by the commitment to promote sustainable development, enhance transformational research and outreach to significantly contribute to Vision 2035. The evolving digital world drove the university to start off the business venture, it was disclosed. Present at the event was Prof. Siddharth Jabade and Prof. Yuvraj Lahoti of the Vishwakarma Institute of Technology. They presented lectures on “Socially-responsible Revolution” and “Stakeholders in the progress of the region.”

Cameron Tribune

The Disciplinary Board of the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM) has expelled five students, including three Cameroonians and two foreigners (a Chadian and a CAR) for cheating during second year examinations.  Abas Mohamadou Ousmanou, son of CPDM billionaire from Ngaoundere, Alhaji Abbo is among the excluded.

They were caught trying to access documents related to a core module from their mobile phones. ENAM examination laws prohibit the use of any material or electronic devices. In response to a request for an explanation that was served to the students by the disciplinary board of ENAM, the respondents argued that: “Having almost finished, we pulled out our phones to look at the time. It was at that point that the supervisor asked us to hand over the phones to him”.

The students pleaded guilty of violating ENAM examination rules and regulations.  Abas Mohamadou Ousmanou and his gang of fraudsters received no pity from the disciplinary board.

Rita Akana (Cameroon Concord News Group)

The Minister of Women Empowerment and the Family, Marie Therese Abena Ondoa has praised the Revised Penal Code, calling it a perfect representation on the integration of women. The Minister made the remark in a press release recently signed in Yaounde.

She noted that the portions of the code which punishes Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), sexual harassment, obstacles to educating the girl child, acts towards preventing the normal growth of body parts of a girl and the denial of visitation rights to separated parents, are worth lauding.

The Minister also expressed satisfaction with the section which demands the equal treatment of men and women in the case of adultery. In the press release, Minister Marie Therese Abena Ondoa implored all Cameroonians to respect the code, while encouraging the women to support it.

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Students in the University of Buea (UB) have continued writing their Second Semester examinations scheduled from June 28-July 18, 2016. On Monday, 11 July, lecturers went on strike, with examinations reportedly overseen mainly by support staff. According to the Registrar, Prof. Roland Ndip, the examinations have been going on hitch-free. He added that the University Senate meets on 3 August during which results will be discussed and approved before being published online. This is so that students in any part of the country and abroad can easily access their results.

Asked about the strike action by lecturers of the university, the Registrar concerted with another school official and then refused to make any statement. However, Cameroon Tribune was able to speak to the First Vice President of the National Syndicate of Teachers of Higher Education (SYNES), Buea chapter, Dr. Ndeh Martin Sango. He confirmed that they actually declared a strike, but it had just been suspended.

“We decided to strike during exams because of unpaid bonuses. These are bonuses for the supervision of long essays, leave claims, re-sit exams, supervision of Master’s theses, and bonuses related to extra working hours. These bonuses date back to 2013 and all attempts to get the university to pay them have failed,” Dr. Ndeh Martin Sango explained. He continued; “We suspended the strike after pleas by students and parents as some of the students will be writing public competitive exams. We decided to suspend the strike so that these students should not suffer innocently. However, we will continue with the strike by withdrawing our services from re-sit exams. We will not start lectures in October if the bonuses are not paid,” he warned.

The union leader alleged that the University of Buea is going through serious administrative crisis, reason why the authorities were not open to dialogue. “We gave the administration a one-month notification before the strike. If the administration was proactive, they would have called the executive of SYNES for dialogue and probably, we would not have declared a strike. In the absence of dialogue, there is always an alternative and we saw strike action as an alternative,” Dr. Ndeh Martin Sango said. Meanwhile, the UB authorities have on several occasions declared their openness to constructive dialogue.

Cameroon Tribune